Given the power imbalances at play, it is folly to assume that land-seekers will suddenly embrace, en masse, a set of voluntary rules promoting sustainable and equitable investor practices, says Michael Kugelman
- Sustainable Security
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02 August 2012
Between the farmers and Olam lies one of Lao’s most powerful, and some allege, corrupt families, the Siphandones.
An international coalition of NGOs and research groups has published the world's largest database of land grab deals struck since 2000, offering unprecedented detail on who's investing, where and what for.
- The Guardian
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27 April 2012
Water grabbing refers to situations where powerful actors take control of valuable water resources for their own benefit, depriving local communities whose livelihoods often depend on these resources and ecosystems.
Despite the African Union's commitment to strengthening women's access and control of land by placing land rights in the domain of human rights, it is silent on the issue of land grabs. This is a gap that the AU needs to plug.
- Open Democracy
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10 February 2012
New book explains the reasons behind the land grab phenomenon and why so many Ethiopians are not only alarmed but also adamantly opposed to it.
- Ethiopian Review
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11 October 2011
Kilombero Plantations Limited chief executive officer Carter Coleman talks about his company's large-scale farming operations in Tanzania, including the removal of the "Project Affected Persons" previously farming the lands.
UAE is ready to build small dams for cultivation on lands they would acquire in Pakistan, provided the government ensures that there is no ban on exports.
- Pakistan Observer
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18 April 2011
The seizing of the poor farmers' land is destroying their only hope of survival on earth.
- Modern Ghana
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27 December 2010
News of the deal has aroused very vehement protest from the Sudanese Farmer’s Union and the tenants in the Gezira Scheme.
- Sudan Tribune
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19 December 2010
The farner’s union claims that the Malibya deal was done behind closed doors and then presented as a fait accompli, a deal that effectively hands over control of Mali’s main rice growing region to a foreign power.
Hassad Food knows how to shop. The $1b subsidiary of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund finalised a $500m agreement last year to grow wheat & rice on 100,000 ha in Sudan and has announced plans to invest $700m worldwide this year.
- The National
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02 September 2010
Australia's opposition leader Tony Abbott said his Liberal-National coalition of center-right parties could revise the country's foreign investment laws if it wins power in the Aug. 21 general election.
Evidence suggests a marked disparity in the benefits received by those involved in and affected by these transnational land acquisitions, particularly for those originally dwelling on the land.
- Brookings Institution
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25 June 2010
The Journal of Peasant Studies, in collaboration with the Land Deal Politics Initiative, is organizing an international academic workshop on ‘Global Land Grabbing’ to be held on 6-8 April 2011 at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
MCC is playing a key role in commodifying Africa’s farmlands
The global rush to acquire agricultural land in bountiful Africa evokes concern and protests.
There is something amazingly patronising in the way Payne claims that Emergent has ‘adopted’ a Mozambican village of 3,000 people and hired its citizens to clear 2,000 acres of land to farm it with her firm.
- Agriprods
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18 February 2010
A discussion note prepared by FAO, IFAD, UNCTAD and the World Bank Group to contribute to an ongoing global dialogue.
- World Bank
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25 January 2010
Ethiopia's potential can be maximized only if we Ethiopians are the producers and sellers of our own agricultural products. What Meles Zenawi is doing now is putting this upside down. He made our potential buyers the sellers of our commodity.
- Ethiomedia
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03 December 2009
Civil society, including African farmers unions, need to educate local people that such land deals are not in their interests, however couched in 'win-win' terminology they appear to be.
"They are selling off African land for a song," said Ndiogou Fall, president of the executive committee for the Network of Peasant Organizations and Producers in West Africa (ROPPA), which is calling for dialogue between governments, producers and African and foreign investors.
Laos has approached Thailand as a partner in a joint venture with Kuwait to grow rice in Laos. The Lao government has allocated 200,000ha.
For investors like Susan Payne, the chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is a hot bet.
The social consequences of these land grabs are significant.
- Workers' World
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03 August 2009
A focus on agricultural productivity should not become a cover for foreign private companies to grab land or impose expensive, input-intensive methods in the name of modernisation.
Contrary to past trends, countries in the Global South are initiating much of the investment.
- Foreign Policy in Focus
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18 June 2009
Gulf nations now are quietly scouring the globe for rich farmland to rent or buy outright.
- Associated Press
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16 November 2008
"Economic development is spurring a land grab in broad areas of the country, and the poorest Lao are paying the price," reports the US Embassy in Vientiane